Child sex abuse suspects jailed

Two men arrested in Tazewell County; one allegedly met victims at church's youth activities

Michael Smothers of GateHouse Media Illinois

PEKIN — Tazewell County prosecutors believe they put two child sexual molesters behind bars this week, including one who allegedly found his victims through a Pekin church’s youth activities.

The other, already convicted and on probation for sexual abuse of a minor, is “potentially violent” and indicated he could molest a child at any time, according to court records.

Cody Brown, 21, and Judah Blunier, 19, both of Morton, were jailed on bonds of $75,000 in their unrelated cases this week.

Brown was charged Wednesday with one count of criminal sexual assault and two of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. He’ll next appear in court Aug. 7.

He was serving a two-year probation term for felony theft when he allegedly assaulted a 14-year-old girl in a house where she was baby-sitting July 5, a prosecutor’s court affidavit stated.

Brown ignored the girl’s repeated verbal and physical efforts to rebuff his advances, the affidavit stated. He was arrested after the girl’s mother contacted police two days later.

Brown told police he is a heroin addict taking part in a rehabilitation program run by the Deliverance Church in Pekin and met the girl through “youth activities” run by the church, the affidavit stated.

He said he’d also had sexual contact with two other minor girls that he came into contact with through the church’s youth activities. “Those victims are the subject of separate investigations,” the affidavit stated, and charges have not yet been filed regarding them.

A judge on Thursday ordered Blunier to be held in custody pending a hearing next Friday when prosecutors will seek to revoke the 48-month probation term he received in February 2013 for aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim between 13 and 17.

In recent months Blunier has “resisted treatment” and “lacked motivation” to take part in his court-ordered therapy and other requirements of his probation, the revocation request stated.

Instead of taking classes he had enrolled in at Illinois Central College, Blunier spent hours, then “all day long” looking at pornographic Web sites on ICC computers, a prosecutor’s affidavit stated. About 10 percent of the sites displayed children “as young as 10,” it stated.

Blunier “is potentially violent” and “has indicated he no longer knows what is keeping him from molesting a child,” the affidavit stated.

He eventually dropped out of ICC and missed employment interviews with hiring agencies, stating he overslept because he’d been playing video games, the affidavit stated.